The porcelain painters, he tells us, are just as ‘poor beggars’ (_gueux_) as the other workmen; and he has evidently a very mean opinion of the art of painting as practised at that time in China: ‘_Ils ignorent les belles règles de cet Art_.’ But such an estimate of Oriental art was universal at that time, when everything was measured from the standpoint of Versailles and the _roi soleil_. ‘The work of the painter is divided in the same laboratory among a great number of workmen. It is the sole business of one to trace the coloured circle that we see near the edge of the vessel; another draws the outline of the flowers, which a third fills in. One painter does the mountains and the water, another the birds and the animals. It is the human figure that is the most badly handled.... As for the colours on the porcelain, we find all sorts. Little is seen in Europe except that with bright blue on a white ground. I think, however, that our merchants have brought over other kinds.’ (The implication is, no doubt, ‘since I have left France.’ This helps us to fix the date of the introduction of coloured porcelain into Europe.) ‘Some we find with a ground like that of our burning mirrors.’ (This is doubtless the _Wu-chin_, or metallic black of the Chinese. This ‘mirror-black’ is compared to a concave glass blackened behind.) ‘Other kinds are wholly red, and among them some are _d’un rouge à l’huile_ (_yu-li-hung_), and some of a _rouge soufflé_ (_chui-hung_), and covered with little points almost like a miniature. When these two varieties are executed with perfect success--and to do this is difficult enough--they are highly esteemed and are very dear.’ The _yu-li-hung_, literally ‘red inside the glaze,’ may be taken to include the various shades of red derived from copper, of the _grand feu_. The _rouge soufflé_ is explained below. The word ‘miniature’ is used, I think, in the old sense of an illuminated manuscript. ‘Finally there are kinds of porcelain with the landscapes on them painted with a mixture of nearly every colour, heightened by a brilliant gilding. These are very beautiful, if no expense is spared. Otherwise the ordinary porcelain of this kind is not to be compared with that which is painted with azure alone. The _Annals of King-te-chen_ say that formerly the people used nothing but a white ware.’